AU 24: Romeo & Juliet
by skycloud86
Summary: CTU meets Shakespeare as medieval Verona turns into modern day Valencia.
1. The Players

_**A/N – This fic is based on the story of Romeo and Juliet. Using resources available on-line, I've matched up different 24 characters to the characters within Romeo & Juliet. The speech is derived from the modern English version of the play rather than the Shakespearean. The character descriptions are taken from .. The story takes place in modern day (i.e. 2009) Valencia, with the ages (and in some cases, gender) of the 24 characters changed to fit those of the Romeo & Juliet characters. In this story, Mantua is replaced by Santa Clarita due to similarity in distance between LA and SC and Verona and Mantua. Also, Prince Escalus is now Mayor Escalus and Friar John is now Sister Joanne, whilst Gregory is now Gregoria. All characters from Romeo & Juliet are the original work of William Shakespeare and the characters of 24 are the property of Fox.**_

**Romeo (Jack Bauer) - **_The son and heir of Montague and Lady Montague. A young man of about sixteen, Romeo is handsome, intelligent, and sensitive. Though impulsive and immature, his idealism and passion make him an extremely likeable character. He lives in the middle of a violent feud between his family and the Capulets, but he is not at all interested in violence. His only interest is love. At the beginning of the play he is madly in love with a woman named Rosaline, but the instant he lays eyes on Juliet, he falls in love with her and forgets Rosaline. Thus, Shakespeare gives us every reason to question how real Romeo's new love is, but Romeo goes to extremes to prove the seriousness of his feelings. He secretly marries Juliet, the daughter of his father's worst enemy; he happily takes abuse from Tybalt; and he would rather die than live without his beloved. Romeo is also an affectionate and devoted friend to his relative Benvolio, Mercutio, and Friar Lawrence. _

**Juliet (Teri Bauer) - **_The daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet. A beautiful thirteen-year-old girl, Juliet begins the play as a naïve child who has thought little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with Romeo, the son of her family's great enemy. Because she is a girl in an aristocratic family, she has none of the freedom Romeo has to roam around the city, climb over walls in the middle of the night, or get into swordfights. Nevertheless, she shows amazing courage in trusting her entire life and future to Romeo, even refusing to believe the worst reports about him after he gets involved in a fight with her cousin. Juliet's closest friend and confidant is her Nurse, though she's willing to shut the Nurse out of her life the moment the Nurse turns against Romeo. _

**Friar Lawrence (Mike Novick) -**_ A Franciscan friar, friend to both Romeo and Juliet. Kind, civic-minded, a proponent of moderation, and always ready with a plan, Friar Lawrence secretly marries the impassioned lovers in hopes that the union might eventually bring peace to Verona. As well as being a Catholic holy man, Friar Lawrence is also an expert in the use of seemingly mystical potions and herbs. _

**Mercutio (Tony Almeida) - **_A kinsman to the Prince, and Romeo's close friend. One of the most extraordinary characters in all of Shakespeare's plays, Mercutio overflows with imagination, wit, and, at times, a strange, biting satire and brooding fervour. Mercutio loves wordplay, especially sexual double entendres. He can be quite hotheaded, and hates people who are affected, pretentious, or obsessed with the latest fashions. He finds Romeo's romanticized ideas about love tiresome, and tries to convince Romeo to view love as a simple matter of sexual appetite. _

**The Nurse (Marilyn Bauer) **_- Juliet's nurse, the woman who breast-fed Juliet when she was a baby and has cared for Juliet her entire life. A vulgar, long-winded, and sentimental character, the Nurse provides comic relief with her frequently inappropriate remarks and speeches. But, until a disagreement near the play's end, the Nurse is Juliet's faithful confidante and loyal intermediary in __Juliet's affair with Romeo. She provides a contrast with Juliet, given that her view of love is earthy and sexual, whereas Juliet is idealistic and intense. The Nurse believes in love and wants Juliet to have a nice-looking husband, but the idea that Juliet would want to sacrifice herself for love is incomprehensible to her. _

**Tybalt (Nina Myers)**_ - A Capulet, Juliet's cousin on her mother's side. Vain, fashionable, supremely aware of courtesy and the lack of it, she becomes aggressive, violent, and quick to draw his sword when she feels her pride has been injured. Once drawn, her sword is something to be feared. She loathes Montagues. _

**Capulet (Graem Bauer)**_ - The patriarch of the Capulet family, father of Juliet, husband of Lady Capulet, and enemy, for unexplained reasons, of Montague. He truly loves his daughter, though he is not well acquainted with Juliet's thoughts or feelings, and seems to think that what is best for her is a "good" match with Paris. Often prudent, he commands respect and propriety, but he is liable to fly into a rage when either is lacking. _

**Lady Capulet (Audrey Raines) - **_Juliet's mother, Capulet's wife. A woman who herself married young (by her own estimation she gave birth to Juliet at close to the age of fourteen), she is eager to see her daughter marry Paris. She is an ineffectual mother, relying on the Nurse for moral and pragmatic support. _

**Montague (Richard Walsh) - **_Romeo's father, the patriarch of the Montague clan and bitter enemy of Capulet. At the beginning of the play, he is chiefly concerned about Romeo's melancholy. _

**Lady Montague (Erica Vasquez) - **_Romeo's mother, Montague's wife. She dies of grief after Romeo is exiled from Verona. _

**Paris (Phil Parslow) - **_A kinsman of the Prince, and the suitor of Juliet most preferred by Capulet. Once Capulet has promised him he can marry Juliet, he behaves very presumptuous toward, acting as if they are already married. _

**Benvolio (Ryan Chappelle) - **_Montague's nephew, Romeo's cousin and thoughtful friend, he makes a genuine effort to defuse violent scenes in public places, though Mercutio accuses him of having a nasty temper in private. He spends most of the play trying to help Romeo get his mind off Rosaline, even after Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet. _

**Mayor Escalus (David Palmer) - **_The Prince of Valencia. A kinsman of Mercutio and Paris. As the seat of political power in Valencia, he is concerned about maintaining the public peace at all costs. _

**Sister Joanne (Lynne Kresge) - **_A Franciscan nun charged by Friar Lawrence with taking the news of Juliet's false death to Romeo in Santa Clarita. Sister John is held up in a quarantined house, and the message never reaches Romeo. _

**Balthasar (Josh Bauer) - **_Romeo's dedicated servant, who brings Romeo the news of Juliet's death, unaware that her death is a ruse. _

**Sampson & Gregoria (Milo Pressman & Jamey Farrell) - **_Two servants of the house of Capulet, who, like their master, hate the Montagues. At the outset of the play, they successfully provoke some Montague men into a fight. _

**Abram (Carl Webb) -**_ Montague's servant, who fights with Sampson and Gregory in the first scene of the play. _

**The Apothecary (Joe Wald) -**_ An apothecary in Mantua. Had he been wealthier, he might have been able to afford to value his morals more than money, and refused to sell poison to Romeo. _

**Peter (Kyle Singer)**_ - A Capulet servant who invites guests to Capulet's feast and escorts the Nurse to meet with Romeo. He is illiterate, and a bad singer _

**Rosaline (Diane Huxley)**_ - The woman with whom Romeo is infatuated at the beginning of the play. Rosaline never appears onstage, but it is said by other characters that she is very beautiful and has sworn to live a life of chastity. _

**The Chorus (Narrator)**_ - The Chorus is a single character who, as developed in Greek drama, functions as a narrator offering commentary on the play's plot and themes. _


	2. Act One, Scene One

_Two households, both alike in dignity,  
In fair Valencia, where we lay our scene,  
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,  
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.  
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes  
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;  
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows  
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.  
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,  
And the continuance of their parents' rage,  
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,  
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;  
The which if you with patient ears attend,  
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. _

**Act One, Scene One**

Sampson Pressman and Gregoria Farrell, employees of the wealthy Capulet family were walking down a street in modern day Valencia, California, armed with baseball bats in anticipation of a fight between them and any enemies they may come across in their journey.

"Gregoria, we cannot allow them to humiliate us! We have got to make sure we don't take any of their crap!", a determined Sampson spoke to his friend and colleague.

"Of course not, or else we would be toilets, wouldn't we?", Gregoria remarked sarcastically.

"You know what I mean! If they piss us off, we should put these bats to good use and give them the beating they deserve!", Sampson replied quickly and with resolve.

"Instead of looking for a fight, Sampson, why not try to keep yourself out of trouble for once?", Gregoria said. She knew that Sampson could be very hotheaded, and although he was tall and lanky, he was not to be underestimated.

"I'm angry, and when I get into a fight when I'm angry, I hit damn hard, much harder than I would normally", Sampson declared, inspecting her baseball bat proudly. It was a steel one, and had probably never even seen a baseball.

"Even though it's actually pretty hard to make you angry", Gregoria quipped to his amusement.

"You know what can easily make me angry? One of those Montague sons of bitches!", Sampson replied, but this just made Gregoria laugh.

"Angry enough to run away. You've never even fought a Montague!", Gregoria told him, but Sampson chose to ignore this.

"One of those bastards will make me angry enough to do something about it! If I pass one of the street, I'll make sure he walks in the road rather than on the path!", Sampson responded, holding his bat up.

"So you're the weak one then? The one who gets pushed against a wall?", Gregoria chortled.

"You're right, that's why girls get pushed up against walls, they're weak. So I'll push the Montague men into the street and their women into the wall", Sampson spoke, enjoying some perverse image in his head.

"The fight is between our employers, and those of us who work for them", Gregoria reminded him.

'It's all the same to me. I'll not go soft on them, though. After I fight the men, then it'll be a different story with the women. I'll just steal their cash!", Sampson declared, seemingly proud of himself. Gregoria laughed at this statement.

"Steal their cash? Steal their virginity, more likely!"

"Their cash, their virginity, it's all good to me", Sampson replied, dismissing Gregoria's scepticism.

"Will it be good for them, though?", Gregoria asked, stepping in front of him and staring into his eyes.

"The stories about my manhood are true, Gregoria, and why wouldn't it be good for them? Everyone knows I'm the most desirable piece of male flesh around!", Sampson said, causing Gregoria to laugh loudly.

"The closest piece of flesh to you is salted fish! Shrivelled and dried!", Gregoria said, trying to calm down her laughter.

Minutes later, the laughter stopped as they saw Abram Webb, one of the employees of the Montague family, the arch rivals of the Capulets. Alongside him was another servant, whose name the Capulet employees did not know or care to know.

"Get your weapon ready, Sampson. These Montague bastards want us to teach them a lesson", Gregoria stated, her bat at the ready. Taking his hunting knife from his waist, Sampson looked closely at Abram.

"Attack them, I'll back you up", Sampson told Gregoria.

"How you gonna do that, run off?", Gregoria asked, her eyes trained on Abram.

"Don't worry about me", Sampson replied, much to Gregoria's amusement.

"I'm not, I can assure you!", Gregoria replied sarcastically. Placing his arm in front of Gregoria, he whispered quietly to her.

"We'll get in trouble if we start something, so we gotta make them start it if we wanna fight", he told her. Agreeing, Gregoria nodded her head.

"I'll make a face at them as they pass by, and we'll see how they react", Gregoria whispered.

"If they dare to react, that is. I'll show them the finger!", Sampson said, before sticking his middle finger up at Abram and his companion. Abram suddenly got angry and stepped forward slightly.

"Why you sticking your finger up at us? You think you got the balls to take me on, Capulet?", Abram yelled.

"I'm just sticking my finger up. That OK?", Sampson replied nonchalantly.

"I can see that, but why? You sticking it up at us?", Abram responded, gripping his bat as he spoke. Sampson turned to Gregoria and whispered again in her ear.

"What should I say?", he asked her, unsure as to how it would affect them if the cops came.

"Say no, Sampson, or else they'll claim you provoked them", she advised him. Turning back to Abram, Sampson decided to take her advice.

"No, Abram, I'm sticking my finger up, but at noone in particular", Sampson spoke, sure that he was giving the right answer. After all, if there was to be a fight, he had to make sure that the Capulets didn't look bad no matter what the outcome was.

"Are you trying to start something, Abram?", Gregoria shouted at Abram, who chuckled.

"No, miss, I am not, but it seems that your friend is", Abram said, pointing his bat at Sampson.

"If you want a fight, then bring it on! You know old man Capulet is just as good as your Montague!", Sampson spoke loudly.

"Perhaps, Sampson, but not better", Abram replied, sneering at him.

"If you say so!", Sampson replied sarcastically. He was now eager to start the fight and get on with it as the testosterone and adrenaline pumped through his veins.

Benvolio Chappelle, the nephew of Montague, approached the two sides and stood in between them. Gregoria leaned in towards Sampson and whispered to him.

"Say the word better, Sampson. Here's Montague's nephew". Sampson looked towards Abram.

"Yes, that is better, sir", emphasising the last word so as to sound insincere.

"Liar!", Abram shouted back at him, betraying his obvious need to start the fight as well.

"Use those weapons of yours then, if you think you can! Gregoria, remember the best places to hit them!", Sampson called out and for a few minutes, each side exchanged angry words and blows. Pulling out an handgun, Benvolio aimed at the sky and fired, grabbing the attention of the warring parties.

"Break it up, you idiots! Put down your weapons at once!", he demanded. Seconds later, a woman approached, who the group recognised as Tybalt Myers, a niece of Lady Capulet. Pulling out her own handgun, she pointed it at Benvolio's back.

"I assume you're going to use that gun and waste bullets on these employees, Benvolio? Turn around and let yourself be killed by someone much better than they, or you, are!", she demanded. As he complied, he scowled at her.

"I'm trying to break up this fight! Now either help me or get lost, Tybalt! I know you won't kill me!", he growled at her.

"You take out your gun and actually talk about breaking up a fight? Besides, you know how much I love violent acts, almost as much as I hate you and your family!", Putting away her gun, she produced a knife, before Benvolio did the same. Approaching each other with knives at the ready, they managed to slash each other a few times whilst a crowd of onlookers, obviously bored with the violent antics of both families, goaded them.

"Use your guns instead of those knives and bats! Down with the fucking lot of you!", a man called out from the crowd.

Suddenly, Capulet Bauer and his wife, Lady Capulet Raines, approached in their limousine, which screeched to a sudden stop. Climbing out, it was obvious that the couple had been in bed as Capulet had a dressing gown wrapped around his overweight body.

"What the hell is going on? Someone give me a weapon!", Capulet called out, much to his wife's annoyance.

"Settle down, old man! You need a crutch, not a bloody knife!", she commented, obviously sick of his bloodlust.

Minutes later, the situation got even worse as another couple, Montague Walsh and his wife, Lady Montague Vasquez, approached. He had a knife at the ready in his hand and as he approached the group, he snarled at Capulet. The rivalry between the families was legendary throughout California and like most conflicts, it had been going on for so long, noone knew what the exact cause was anymore. The most accepted possible explanation was that the two families had originally been good friends down in Louisiana, but had grown apart when they had emigrated to California, where one of the families had betrayed the other during the Gold Rush.

"Give me a weapon, Montague is here, and he's flashing that knife to piss me off even more1", Capulet yelled, his face bright red with fury. Montague tried to approach him, but his wife held him back.

"Capulet, you bastard, wait until I get hold of you! Would you let me go, don't stop me!", Montague shouted, but his wife was not in the mood to negotiate.

"You're not getting any nearer to him!", Lady Montague said with determination. Suddenly, another limousine pulled up. The Mayor, Escalus Palmer, got out of the car and walked up to the rioters, who were unaware of his presence at first.

"People! You violent criminals! Using weapons to attack your own neighbours in your own streets! Are you even listening to me!", The Mayor shouted, gaining the attention of most of the fighters. He continued when he was satisfied that he was talking to all of them.

"Are you animals, who need to satisfy some sort of bloodlust? If you don't cease this violence and leave this area immediately, I will have each and every one of you arrested!" The fighters put away their weapons and turned to face the Mayor. Escalus was a strong and popular authority figure in Valencia, and he had done much to improve the city.

"This is the third time that a riot has broken out because of this feud between the Montague and Capulet families. Three times that the peace has been disturbed and the police have had to arrest numerous people. If this happens again, I will do everything in my power to remove one, or even both, of these families from Valencia. Now, I want you all to leave, bar Capulet and Montague. Capulet, come with me. Montague, 3pm tomorrow, I want to see you at City Hall. As for the rest of you, leave or be arrested", the Mayor spoke, and the people complied. Eventually, only Montague, Lady Montague and Benvolio were left.

"Who started it this time, Benvolio? Were you here when it started?", Montague asked his nephew.

"A couple of your employees were fighting some of Capulet's employees before I got here. Minutes after I arrived, that hothead Tybalt approached with her gun at the ready. She taunted me and pointed her gun at my back. We began to fight with knives and as we fought, a crowd formed around us, until Mayor Palmer came and stopped us", Benvolio explained to his uncle.

"Benvolio, have you seen Romeo today? I'm just glad he wasn't a part of this fight", lady Montague asked him.

"Well, I had a lot on my mind this morning, so I went for a walk in the orange groves near the city and I saw Romeo walking there. I headed toward him, but he saw me and went into the woods. I thought he was feeling depressed and probably wanted to be alone, so I left him to be by himself", Benvolio explained. Montague sighed as his nephew spoke.

"He's been down there a lot, especially in the early hours. I know that he goes there to cry and let his emotions out and, as soon as the sun rises, he comes back home, where he just stays in his room all day, draws his curtains to keep out the sunlight, making day into artificial night. This can only end up with something bad happening, unless someone can help figure out what is wrong with the lad".

"I assume you have no idea why he acts like that?", Benvolio enquired.

"I don't know why, and he won't tell me either", Montague replied, his voice full of concern.

"Have you tried everything you could do to get him to tell you?", Benvolio asked.

"I've tried, and so have others, but he keeps his feelings locked deep inside himself. He obviously keeps his own secrets well. If only we knew why he was sad, we would be more than happy to do whatever was necessary to make him feel happy once more".

As they were talking, Romeo approached from the other side of the street. Benvolio turned to Montague and explained his plan.

"If you don't mind, please let me have minute alone with him, and I'll see if I can get him to talk. He'll either have to tell me, or just refuse outright", he said, and Montague and Lady Montague both agreed to this.

"I hope you have some success, Benvolio. Come on Erica, let's go", Montage spoke, first to his nephew then to his wife.

As the Montagues left the scene, Benvolio greeted his cousin.

"Good morning, cousin", he spoke as Romeo reached him.

"Is it that early in the day?", Romeo said, his voice melancholic.

"It just turned 9'o'clock", Benvolio said.

"Wow, time flies when you're depressed. Was that my parents who left in such a hurry?", Romeo asked.

"It was, yes. What is making you so sad that the hours are like days or even weeks to you?", Benvolio enquired.

"I don't have the one thing that makes the time go by so fast", Romeo responded.

"You're in love?"

"Out, not in"

"Out of love?", Benvolio asked with confusion.

"I love someone, but she doesn't love me back", Romeo replied, avoiding eye contact with his cousin as he spoke.

"It is sad, that love looks so appealing, but when you experience it, it is so rough", Benvolio said.

"What is sad that love is meant to be blind, but it can still make you do anything it wants to. So, should we go somewhere for some breakfast?", Romeo said, before noticing the spilt blood on the ground.

"What the hell happened here? Actually, I think I can guess exactly what happened. Although it has a lot to do with hatred, it has even more to do with love. Brawling love and loving hate, love that comes from nothing! Sad happiness and serious foolishness, beautiful things muddled together into some ugly mess! Love is a meeting of contradictions and is everything except what it is. This is the love I feel within, but noone loves me back. Are you laughing?", Romeo spoke. Benvolio looked at him before shaking his head.

"No, I'm crying", he told Romeo.

"Why are you crying?", Romeo asked him.

"Because of how sad you are, it makes me depressed", Benvolio admitted to his cousin.

"This is what love does to us. My sadness sits heavily in my chest, and you wish to add your own sadness to mine, which just creates even more depression. I have too much sadness as it is, and now you will make me even more depressed by feeling sorry for you. Love is a smoke made out of the sighs of lovers, and when that smoke clears, love is a fire burning magnificently in your lover's eyes. If you frustrate love, it causes an ocean made of your lover's tears. What else is love? It is a wise form of madness, Benvolio.", Romeo said, before bidding his cousin goodbye.

"Wait, I'll come with you, I would like to", Benvolio spoke as Romeo walked slowly away. Turning around, Romeo spoke to his cousin.

"I'm not myself, and I'm not here. This man you see, he isn't Romeo", he told his cousin.

"Tell me seriously, cousin. Who is it that you love?"

"Seriously? You think I should tell you her name?", Romeo asked.

"Yes, I do", Benvolio replied.

"You wouldn't tell a sick man that he seriously has to make his will, that would only make him feel worse. Seriously cousin, I love a woman"

"We've established that you're in love, Romeo. We haven't established her name", Benvolio replied.

"Then you're right. The woman I love, she is beautiful"

"An attractive target is the one that gets hit the fastest"

"There, you're wrong. She refuses to be hit by one of the arrows of Cupid. As clever as the goddess Diana, she is shielded by the armour of chastity and is immune to the weak and childish arrows of love. She will not listen to words of love, won't allow you to gaze upon her with loving eyes, or allow any man into her bed. Whilst she is rich in beauty, she is also poor because upon her death, all her riches will be destroyed", Romeo lamented.

"So she's vowed to stay a virgin for all of her life?", Benvolio enquired.

"Yes she had, and thus wastes her beauty. No sex means no children, and therefore her beauty will be unknown to future generations. She is too beautiful and too wise to deserve the blessings of heaven by making me despair. Having sworn off love, her promise has made me alive but dead, living only to talk about it"

"Take my advice, Romeo. Forget about her", Benvolio told his cousin.

"Then you must teach me to forget to think!", Romeo replied.

"You can forget about her by thinking of other girls. Let your eyes wander freely, Romeo!"

"That will only make me think more about her, and how beautiful she is. Beautiful girls like to wear black masks over their faces, which only make us think of the bueatiful face hidden behind it. A man who has gone blind cannot and will not forget the precious gift of eyesight he once had. Show me a really beautiful girl. Her beauty is like a note telling me where I can see another woman who is even more beautiful. Goodbye. You cannot teach me to forget", Romeo replied.

"I'll show you how to forget, even if I die in the process!", Benvolio promised his cousin, as they walked down the street in the morning sunshine.


End file.
